Volcano ash may hover for days

The Icelandic volcano that has kept much of Europe land-bound offered up new mini-eruptions that raised concerns about longer-term damage to world air travel and trade.

Facing days to come under the Eyjafjallajokull volcano's unpredictable, ashy plume, Europeans are looking at temporary airport layoffs and creative flight patterns to try to weather the extraordinary event.

Modern Europe has never seen such a travel disruption. Airspace from Britain to Ukraine was closed and set to stay that way until today or tomorrow in some countries, affecting airports from New Zealand to San Francisco. Millions of passengers have had plans foiled or delayed.

Activity in the volcano increased yesterday and showed no sign of abating.

"There doesn't seem to be an end in sight," Icelandic geologist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson said. "The activity has been quite vigorous, causing the eruption column to grow."

Scientists say that because the volcano is situated below a glacial ice cap, the magma is being cooled quickly, causing explosions and plumes of grit that can be catastrophic to plane engines, depending on prevailing winds.

In Iceland, winds dragged the ashes over new farmland, to the south west of the glacier, causing farmers to scramble to secure their cattle and board up windows.

The ash is toxic - the fluoride causes long-term bone damage that makes teeth fall out and bones break.

Forecasters say light prevailing winds in Europe - and large amounts of unmelted glacial ice above the volcano - mean that the situation is unlikely to change quickly.

With the prospect of days under the cloud of ash, pilots and aviation chiefs sought to dodge the dangerous grit by adjusting altitude levels.

Germany's airspace ban allows for low-level flights to go ahead under so-called visual flight rules, in which pilots do not rely on their instruments.

Lufthansa took advantage of that to fly 10 empty planes to Frankfurt from Munich yesterday in order to have them in the right place when the restrictions were lifted, airline spokesman Wolfgang Weber said.

The planes flew at about 9,843 feet - well below their usual altitude - in close co-ordination with air traffic control.

KLM is carrying out a test flight from Schiphol to Dusseldorf at 3,000 meters or lower, hoping for approval to carry out more low-altitude flights in Europe if the ash problem continues.

The Swiss looked in the other direction - above the ash cloud. The Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation began allowing flights yesterday above Swiss airspace as long as the aircraft were at least at 36,000 feet. It also allowed flights at lower altitudes under visual flight rules, aimed at small, private aircraft.

All air space in Poland - hosting a huge state funeral for the late President Lech Kaczynski - remained closed to flights above the cloud level of 20,000 feet because of the ash cloud.

Some low-level flights are being allowed in the south, however, which is how the Polish Air Force will be able to ferry the coffins of Mr Kaczynski and his wife from Warsaw to Krakow aboard a prop-powered military cargo plane.

Several world leaders, including US president Barack Obama, had to abandon plans to attend the funeral because of ash-related disruptions.

The aviation industry, already reeling from a punishing period, is facing at least £130 million in losses every day, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Scandinavian airline operator SAS AB said it has given notice of a temporary layoff of up to 2,500 ground service staff in Norway as a result of the flight disruptions.

Around the world, anxious passengers have told stories of missed weddings, business deals and holidays because of the ominous plume. Stranded passengers reported the delays were causing financial hardships. Some had to check out of hotels and sleep in airports.

"It's like a refugee camp," said Rhiannon Thomas, from Birmingham, describing the scene at New York's Kennedy Airport.

Her family spent the night at the airport and may be there for days before they can get a flight home.

"At least we got beds," said Ms Thomas' mother, Pat, referring to the hundreds of narrow blue cots brought in to JFK's Terminal 4. "Some people slept on cardboard."

German chancellor Angela Merkel was heading homeward in an armoured car along an Italian highway - continuing a long and circuitous return from the US.

Merkel was diverted to Lisbon, spent the night in the Portuguese capital, then flew to Rome yesterday.

From there, she and her delegation set off by road toward northern Italy's South Tyrol region for another overnight stay. Last night, her government announced she would not be able to make it to Poland for today's state funeral.

In Canada, where about 200 soldiers were to be deployed to Afghanistan on Friday, they waited in Ontario through the weekend waiting for clearance to take off.

But Pope Benedict XVI's flight to Malta for a weekend pilgrimage was one of the few to depart yesterday from Rome. Greeting journalists aboard the plane, the pontiff told them he hoped they would have "nice trip without this dark cloud that has arrived on the rest of Europe".